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Monday, July 18, 2011

Foster The People are, according to one of my colleagues, "officially hot". The drummer (left) is hottest, then the guy on bass (middle). But the lead singer (right) hasn't exactly been hit in the face with an ugly stick, either.

Those are actual facts from a journalist.

Anyway, the LA band were bundled into 6 Music Towers today for an acoustic session on Lauren Laverne's show - drawing a crowd of mainly women to see them play tracks from their terrific debut album, Torches. The sanctity of my contract of employment prevents me from posting a video of the event, but luckily they did the exact same set for Sirius XM in the States two months ago. Here's Pumped Up Kicks.

Luckily Flopster The Peephole, as no-one is calling them, have complied by uploading Helena Beat, to YouTube. If the insanely catchy chorus to Pumped Up Kicks drove you... well, insane, you'll be pleased to hear this is slightly more subtle. The melody, stuffed with gratuitous yeah yeah's, is perfectly memorable - it's just that you won't wake up at three in the morning singing it at full volume into your pillow.

Video director Ace Norton (LCD Soundsystem, Santigold) picks up on the song's vaguely sinister lyrics ("I tie my hands up to a chair") with an equally disturbing video. "It's post-apocalyptic," Marcus Foster told MTV. "Lord of the Flies meets Mad Max. So, it's a bunch of kids, and they kidnap us and take us into this warehouse, and there's a really crazy twist at the end...."